Car chase spans five countries

[kpih]

Car chase spans five countries

Associated Press, Banja Luka
Monday February 7, 2005
The Guardian

An armed man who seized his four-year-old daughter from her mother's home in north-western Germany drove hundreds of miles across Europe with police in pursuit and is being chased in Bosnia, officials said yesterday.

The 29-year-old man, identified as Edin Kantarevic, was thought by police to be heading for his home town of Novi Grad in north-western Bosnia. But he passed through the town in his green Honda and headed towards Bihac, where his brother is thought to live, police spokesman Rade Mutic said.

Mr Kantarevic and his wife had argued at her apartment in Viersen, near Düsseldorf. A German police statement said the couple were separated and he "took his daughter by force from the apartment".

Mr Kantarevic then drove through the night, crossing into Austria early yesterday. German police said they were unable to speak to him and did not intervene to free the child because he was armed and driving at high speed. Mr Mutic said Mr Kantarevic shot at a German officer who was trying to stop him.

Major Rudolf Gollia, a spokesman for the Austrian interior ministry, said Mr Kantarevic was armed with two pistols and hand grenades.

Austrian police did not attempt to halt the car for "tactical reasons," and it entered Slovenia after about three hours. Police in that country tailed it peacefully to the border with Croatia.

Mr Kantarevic, who has Bosnian origins but whose citizenship was not immediately clear, assured Croatian police that he would not harm the child if he was granted passage to Bosnia, Croatian police spokesman Zlatko Mehun said, adding that the fugitive had shown the police a hand grenade to demonstrate that he was serious.